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WilliamOmorogievaFirstEssay 3 - 10 May 2017 - Main.EbenMoglen
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We live in a nation that claims to be the pinnacle of democracy and a model to the rest of the world. However, this is far from the truth and many reasons exist that makes this statement false. America is hypocritical because we claim to stand for democracy while we lack full democracy in our very own nation’s capital. Being born and raised in Washington, D.C. I always had pride in the fact that I lived in the nation’s capital. To many, DC is seen as a tourist location where they can explore the monuments, museums, and see where the president lives. This view of our nation’s capital most likely contributes to the unfair and unequal treatment that the 650,000 DC residents face daily. Similar to the rest of the country, residents of the District myself included, are fed up with the political system since DC residents have been cheated of their full representation since DC was created. | | | Arguments supporting the lack of representation in DC, point to the constitution and claim that DC was never meant to be a state or have representation in Congress. But we can not only view the past of our nation in a strictly originalist view, and as times change the law is sometimes required to change as well. There is one obvious reason why D.C., will not become a state or get representation anytime soon, politics. DC is a very liberal city and votes heavily in favor of the democratic party in all elections. Members of Congress fear that if DC became a state it would help to tip the Senate towards a more liberal makeup. What politicians fear the most is the loss of their power and influence, and in addition to the changes in the house of representatives and senate, another change would occur.
If DC was to become a state or at least if DC was given full representation, congress would lose the ability to override laws that DC citizens pass. Congress often likes to use DC to make a message to the rest of Americans about the direction in which they see our nation going. This could mean controlling and limiting the budget of DC so that funding can’t take place, which is necessary for certain programs to happen. This sounds extremely familiar to what is going on today with current president and his strategy for getting states to comply with his delusional will. However, no one seems to care when extreme overreaches of power that try to supersede local laws occurs in DC. This is because people only care about things which affect them. My hope is that with outreach and the use of the internet, the plight of DC residents can spread and people will start to realize that by allowing injustice somewhere, you are condoning injustice elsewhere. 246 years latter America still has taxation without representation. | |
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I don't think there was any idea here that isn't present in every
other piece on statehood for the District of Columbia I have
read, which is many. If you were presenting a new idea, you
should be sure to put it clearly at the top of the essay, so that
people who are accustomed to the discussion can see it first.
What is not here is the simple political analysis: there is no
constituency in American government, other than the residents of
the District themselves, to support a statute, let alone a
constitutional amendment, to give senators and a congressman to
the District. No other State, let alone Virginia and Maryland,
benefits from the dilution of its Senatorial representation. The
Republican Party has no reason whatever to support the idea
anywhere, while the Democratic Party gains the votes of DC
residents in the Electoral College, and needs them in no other
way that would override the contrasting needs of the State
governments in which it holds power. It does not happen because
it has no meaningful support. This will not change.
So if you have an inclination to write an essay on this subject,
the next draft should leave out what we all have heard many times
before, and present some new form of political contrivance that
can squeeze the blood of democracy from the stones of reality.
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